Shows
WORDTheatre® Weekly: A Short Story Podcast Where the Best Authors & Actors Meet...REBROADCAST: CSI's Gary Dourdan performs Witness: Letter From France by John Edgar Wideman
2026-01-1716 min
Poured OverHow We Read Now (featuring MJ Franklin and Joumana Khatib of The New York Times) Get ready for another great year of reading! MJ Franklin and Joumana Khatib of The New York Times join us to talk about dissecting the literary canon, keeping books weird, language, dialogue, world building, rereading, blurbs and more with host Miwa Messer. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger Moderation by Elaine Castillo Eli...
2026-01-011h 16
Plague Remedy PodcastWhat Makes Writing Human? Virtuoso Author David Means on Craft, Trauma, and AmericaBuy us a coffee, or a pint, by supporting our GoFundMe campaign! Where can I find David Means?"You can Google me."Where can I buy his books? (not all of them)Two Nurses, SmokingHystopiaAssorted Fire EventsDavid Mean's Two Books & Two Others The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis HydeYou Made Me Love You by John Edgar WidemanVirtua...
2025-11-2552 minPoured OverJohn Edgar Wideman on LANGUAGES OF HOME Languages of Home by John Edgar Wideman is a collection of the acclaimed author and cultural critic's most influential works — five decades in the making. John joins us to talk about the creative process, improvisation, basketball, storytelling, the evolution of voice, translation and more with host Miwa Messer. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): Languages of Home: Essays on Writing, Hoop, and Americ...
2025-11-1857 min
The Epicurean Vagabonds present Aesthetic ArrestAesthetic Arrest: A Breathtaking Concert by Cécile McLorin Salvant, Art Deco Icon Tamara de Lempicka & The Astounding Lennie James in Mr Loverman!Plus John Edgar Wideman's Provocative New Book, An Autumnal Invocation by Robinson Jeffers, Martha Stewart's Ruffle Pumpkin Milk Pie & Owl-licious Cocktails!Wildstar’s Wednesday Libation: Havana Meets Normandy! (Havana Club 7 Year Old Dark Rum, Les Délices de Belle France Cidre Bouché Doux Normand (sparkling hard apple cider from Normandy), Brown Sugar Simple Syrup & a Red Apple Garnish)Reading #1: Poem of the Week — “October Evening” by Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) & Slaveroad by John Edgar WidemanLis...
2024-10-2337 min
The League of Extraordinary ReadersFriend, Its Coates!Jessica and Shelbey discuss their current reads, Q4 anticipated releases, learn some new words and more!
Follow the pod on IG&Threads: @theleagueofreaders
Shelbey's IG&Threads: @ShelbeyMonae
Jessica's IG&Threads: @literaturenoirclub
Email Us: theleagueofreaderspod@gmail.com
Book's Mentioned:
Jessica's List:
Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle-Felton
The Black Utopians by Aaron Robertson
John Lewis: A Life by David Greenberg
This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance by James Baldwin
This Motherless...
2024-09-171h 15
Punto de libroPDL22: El libro que me cambió la vidaEn este episodio recomendamos 'Escribir para salvar una vida' de John Edgar Wideman, 'La carretera' de Cormac McCarthy, nos enredamos sobre la definición de la ciencia ficción -sin llegar a las manos, pero casi- y 'La bandera invisible' de Peter Bamm.
Después hablamos de esos libros especiales, que nos han cambiado la vida o que han tenido un impacto significativo en nosotros. Después de leerlos, no hemos vuelto a ser los mismos.
La música de apertura y cierre es, como siempre, de Marc Bernet.
2024-05-1250 min
Finding Favorites with Leah JonesBen Tanzer loves The Basketball DiariesBen Tanzer, a Chicago-based author and consultant, joined Leah to celebrate the launch of his new novel The Missing (pre-order on Bookshop.org for March 21, 2024 delivery) and his love of the book The Basketball Diaries. This conversation is a trip down memory lane, because Leah and Ben have been friends for 15+ years.
We briefly discuss the suicide of a mutual colleague.
Follow Ben online
The Missing release date March 21, 2024
The Missing book tour
Ben Tanzer on Bookshop
This Podcast Will Change Your Life
TanzerBen.com
twitter @BenTanzer
Instagram @tanzerben/
Facebook @BenTanzer
Show...
2024-02-181h 06
Dive Into This Immersive Full Audiobook And Feel The Difference.Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar WidemanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/2631to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Brothers and Keepers
Author: John Edgar Wideman
Narrator: Mirron Willis
Format: mp3
Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
Release date: 10-24-23
Ratings: 4 out of 5 stars, 14 ratings
Genres: Art & Literature
Publisher's Summary:
“A rare triumph” (The New York Times Book Review), this powerful memoir about the divergent paths taken by two brothers is a classic work from one of the greatest figures in American literature: a reflection on John Edgar Wideman’s family and his brother’s incarceration—a classic that is as relevant now as when originally published in 1984.
2023-10-2412h 22Poured OverAyana Mathis on THE UNSETTLED The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis follows a family through generations from small town Alabama to Philadelphia in the 80s as they struggle, succeed and learn to care for each other. Mathis joins us to talk about how long it took her to write this book, keeping joy in hard stories, how real events and culture shape her characters and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your...
2023-09-2854 min
The Most Dangerous Thing in AmericaJohn Edgar Wideman - Look For Me And I’ll Be GoneThis week (it actually took weeks) I read John Edgar Wideman's Look For Me And I'll Be Gone.
Keep reading!
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-most-dangerous-thing-in-america/id1551126578
https://open.spotify.com/show/5xky9xGXgdh0bTcUx1yNEf?si=c1b3769405b64615
https://soundcloud.com/bobby-wilson-588095918
Music from TheKeepRunning:
https://soundcloud.com/user-861419594
To read my writings:
https://bobbywwilsonjr.com/publications...
2023-07-0626 min
Ear HustleEar Hustle Presents: ViolationIt’s summertime! Which means the Ear Hustle team is off cooking up a new batch of stories for our next season — Season 12 — launching September 6.
In the meantime, we’re bringing you an episode from one of our favorite new podcasts, Violation. The series revisits a 1986 murder case, in which 16-year-old Jacob Wideman — son of award-winning author John Edgar Wideman — fatally stabbed his summer camp roommate. Violation explores the parole process, examining who pulls the levers of power in our criminal system.
Violation is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR, and The Marshall Project.
Ear Hustle...
2023-07-0535 minTK Drama ClubEar Hustle Presents: ViolationIt’s summertime! Which means the Ear Hustle team is off cooking up a new batch of stories for our next season — Season 12 — launching September 6.
In the meantime, we’re bringing you an episode from one of our favorite new podcasts, Violation. The series revisits a 1986 murder case, in which 16-year-old Jacob Wideman — son of award-winning author John Edgar Wideman — fatally stabbed his summer camp roommate. Violation explores the parole process, examining who pulls the levers of power in our criminal system.
Violation is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR, and The Marshall Project.
Ear Hustle...
2023-07-0535 minThe Most Dangerous Thing in AmericaYessoh G.D. - Ta LęBack for the first time! After a three-month hiatus, I return with my first interview with Yessoh G.D., author of Ta Lę. This is the first book in a series. I'll be back next week with a book by John Edgar Wideman.
Yessoh's website:
https://www.thetaleseries.com/
Keep reading!
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-most-dangerous-thing-in-america/id1551126578
https://open.spotify.com/show/5xky9xGXgdh0bTcUx1yNEf?si=c1b3769405b64615
2023-06-2238 min
Beyond All Repair Violation Ep 2: 'Bad Seed' Not long after Jacob Wideman murdered his summer camp roommate, Eric Kane, in 1986 — seemingly with no motive — a question emerged in the breathless news coverage of the tragedy: Was Jake a “bad seed”?
It was no accident that some reporters latched onto the phrase. After all, it was plucked straight from perhaps the most famous book written by Jake’s own father, acclaimed author John Edgar Wideman, about his family’s experience with violence, trauma and incarceration.
But John Wideman wasn’t writing about his son Jake when he used the phrase “bad seed” in his seminal memoir...
2023-03-2941 min
Beyond All Repair Violation Ep 2: 'Bad Seed' Not long after Jacob Wideman murdered his summer camp roommate, Eric Kane, in 1986 — seemingly with no motive — a question emerged in the breathless news coverage of the tragedy: Was Jake a “bad seed”?
It was no accident that some reporters latched onto the phrase. After all, it was plucked straight from perhaps the most famous book written by Jake’s own father, acclaimed author John Edgar Wideman, about his family’s experience with violence, trauma and incarceration.
But John Wideman wasn’t writing about his son Jake when he used the phrase “bad seed” in his seminal memoir...
2023-03-2941 min
Last Seen 'Violation,' Part 1: Two sons, lost Why did Jacob Wideman murder Eric Kane?
In 1986, the two 16-year-olds were rooming together on a summer camp trip to the Grand Canyon when Jacob fatally — and inexplicably — stabbed Eric.
That night, Jacob went on the run, absconding with the camp’s rented Oldsmobile and thousands of dollars in traveler’s checks. Before long, he turned himself in and eventually confessed to the killing — although he couldn’t explain what drove him to do it.
It would take years of therapy and medical treatment behind bars before Jacob could begin to understand what was going th...
2023-03-2334 minEndless Thread 'Violation,' Part 1: Two sons, lost Why did Jacob Wideman murder Eric Kane?
In 1986, the two 16-year-olds were rooming together on a summer camp trip to the Grand Canyon when Jacob fatally — and inexplicably — stabbed Eric.
That night, Jacob went on the run, absconding with the camp’s rented Oldsmobile and thousands of dollars in traveler’s checks. Before long, he turned himself in and eventually confessed to the killing — although he couldn’t explain what drove him to do it.
It would take years of therapy and medical treatment behind bars before Jacob could begin to understand what was going th...
2023-03-2334 min
Beyond All Repair Violation Ep 1: Two Sons, Lost Why did Jacob Wideman murder Eric Kane?
In 1986, the two 16-year-olds were rooming together on a summer camp trip to the Grand Canyon when Jacob fatally — and inexplicably — stabbed Eric.
That night, Jacob went on the run, absconding with the camp’s rented Oldsmobile and thousands of dollars in traveler’s checks. Before long, he turned himself in and eventually confessed to the killing — although he couldn’t explain what drove him to do it.
It would take years of therapy and medical treatment behind bars before Jacob could begin to understand what was going th...
2023-03-2234 minBeyond All Repair Violation Ep 1: Two Sons, Lost Why did Jacob Wideman murder Eric Kane?
In 1986, the two 16-year-olds were rooming together on a summer camp trip to the Grand Canyon when Jacob fatally — and inexplicably — stabbed Eric.
That night, Jacob went on the run, absconding with the camp’s rented Oldsmobile and thousands of dollars in traveler’s checks. Before long, he turned himself in and eventually confessed to the killing — although he couldn’t explain what drove him to do it.
It would take years of therapy and medical treatment behind bars before Jacob could begin to understand what was going th...
2023-03-2234 min
Beyond All Repair Trailer: Introducing 'Violation' In 1986, while on a summer camp trip to the Grand Canyon, 16-year-old Jacob Wideman fatally stabbed his roommate, Eric Kane. Jacob confessed to the murder, but couldn’t explain why he did it.
The crime devastated both boys’ families. For the Widemans, it was also a haunting echo from their family history.
Just two years earlier, Jacob’s father, acclaimed author John Edgar Wideman, had published "Brothers and Keepers," a memoir that grappled with how his brother, Jacob’s uncle Robby Wideman, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a fatal robbery. How coul...
2023-03-0803 min
Beyond All Repair Trailer: Introducing 'Violation' In 1986, while on a summer camp trip to the Grand Canyon, 16-year-old Jacob Wideman fatally stabbed his roommate, Eric Kane. Jacob confessed to the murder, but couldn’t explain why he did it.
The crime devastated both boys’ families. For the Widemans, it was also a haunting echo from their family history.
Just two years earlier, Jacob’s father, acclaimed author John Edgar Wideman, had published "Brothers and Keepers," a memoir that grappled with how his brother, Jacob’s uncle Robby Wideman, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a fatal robbery. How coul...
2023-03-0803 min
Behind the Mic With Kirkus ReviewsLOOK FOR ME AND I'LL BE GONE by John Edgar Wideman, read by Dion Graham, Janina EdwardsNarrator Dion Graham delivers John Edgar Wideman’s discursive stream-of-consciousness stories in a powerful, resonant style. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss Wideman’s compelling combination of memoir, fiction, and essays, told sometimes in a stream-of-consciousness style that gives listeners insights into life as a Black American. Janina Edwards contributes to the narration as well, helping to bring these semi-autobiographical fictions luminously to life. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Simon & Schuster Audio.Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.comSupport for Behind the Mic comes from Oasis Audio, publisher of Heavenly...
2021-12-3107 min
Vell's World PodcastSupport Doesn't Come Easy from Love OnesThis episode talks about Vell's challenges with love and support from family & friends.
The Good Read for this episode is Black Boy [Seventy-fifth Anniversary Edition] by Richard Wright, John Edgar Wideman (Foreword by), Malcolm Wright (Afterword). Wright’s once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a Black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him—whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and Blacks resentful of a...
2021-11-2522 min
Book Public'You Made Me Love You’: John Edgar Wideman’s Masterful Storytelling Of The Last 40 Years Still Relevant TodayJohn Edgar Wideman has published some 20 books. His latest, "You Made Me Love You," is a collection of 57 stories selected from previously published collections.
2021-05-1433 min
Book FightEp 335: I'm Your HuckleberryThis week we discuss a 2018 John Edgar Wideman story from The New Yorker, about a writing teacher trying to decide how to talk to a white student about a well-meaning story she's writing about the travails of a person of color. You can read that story here. Then we learn what books Val Kilmer thinks we should be reading this summer. If you like the show, and would like more Book Fight in your life, please consider joining our Patreon. For $5, you'll get access to three bonus episodes a month, including Book Fight After Dark, where we...
2020-07-131h 06
The Connecting Memories PodcastOn memory and African American literature with guest speaker Dr Leila KamaliThe guest speaker for this episode is Dr Leila Kamali (@kamali_leila).
Dr Kamali presents a talk entitled ‘Cultural Memory Past, Present and Future in the work of John Edgar Wideman’ and we discuss the cultural memory of Africa in African American and Black British literature.
2020-05-0451 min
Dear Adam SilverEpisode 22: Noah Cohan and We Average Unbeautiful WatchersNoah Cohan is a Lecturer of American Culture at Washington University in St. Louis. His book, published earlier this year, entitled We Average Unbeautiful Watchers, is a critical unpacking of sports fandom in relation to larger societal issues. Noah engages this subject as a fan himself and rethinks ways that fans and spectators can have a healthier, more productive relationship with both sports and players.
A couple of the books that Noah mentions on the podcast and references in his book directly that I can also recommend:
The Heritage by Howard Bryant
Hoop Roots by J...
2019-12-131h 20
La Nouvelle Bouquinerie# 6 – La Nouvelle Bouquinerie // Le Territoire de la rueA découvrir et écouter Hans Limon et Zarca
Poéticide - Hans Limon
Paname Underground - Zarca
La grève des Battù - Aminata Sow Fall
La forme d'une ville - Julien Gracq
Numbers - John Rechy
Un arbre en mai - Jean-Christophe Bailly
Jérôme - Jean-Pierre Martinet
L'Autoroute A4 et autres poèmes - Linda Maria Baros
Projet Fanon - John Edgar Wideman
Avec les lectures de Sarah Dulaurier, Sylvie Debrun, Laure Sagol, Jacques Bonaffé, Zarca, Hans Limon, et Xavier de Guillebon
Les impromptus de la Nouvelle Bouquinerie n°2 : Jean Muller : Profession éditeur
NB: Emission réenregistrée e...
2019-02-2200 min
Book FightEp 262: Winter of Wayback, 1993 (John Edgar Wideman)This week we time-travel back to 1993 to see what was going on in literature, technology, and pop culture. For our reading, we're diving into the John Edgar Wideman short story, "Newborn Thrown in Trash and Dies," part of his prize-winning collection All Stories Are True. The story was inspired by a 1991 news report about a baby who had been discarded down the trash chute of an apartment building. In publishing news this week, Mike looks at the state of "electronic books" on CD-ROM, which in 1993 were beginning to be sold in some book stores, and Tom has...
2019-01-281h 01
WMFAGetting the Writing Done w. NATALIE GOLDBERG
Author photo by Mitsue Nagese.
Episode 28Natalie Goldberg is the author of over fourteen books, including the bestselling Writing Down the Bones, which has changed the way writing is taught. Her other books include Wild Mind, The Long Quiet Highway (both published by Bantam), and The Great Spring (Shambhala). She continues to lead workshops and retreats nationally and internationally, which she has done for over forty years. She has also painted for as long as she has written. She lives in northern New Mexico. Discussed In This EpisodeThe book that g...
2018-06-1342 min
Access Top-Rated Full Audiobooks in Fiction, LGBTQ+American Histories by John Edgar WidemanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/330476to listen full audiobooks.
Title: American Histories
Author: John Edgar Wideman
Narrator: Dion Graham
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes
Release date: March 27, 2018
Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.67 of Total 3
Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 3
Genres: LGBTQ+
Publisher's Summary:
In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life, blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other. With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time...
2018-03-276h 44Get Top Full Audiobooks in Fiction, HistoricalAmerican Histories by John Edgar WidemanPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/330476to listen full audiobooks.
Title: American Histories
Author: John Edgar Wideman
Narrator: Dion Graham
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes
Release date: March 27, 2018
Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.67 of Total 3
Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 3
Genres: Historical
Publisher's Summary:
In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life, blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other. With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time...
2018-03-276h 44
Skylight Books Podcast SeriesZINZI CLEMMONS READS FROM HER DEBUT NOVEL WHAT WE LOSE
From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African-American woman coming of age--a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and country.
Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother's childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor--someone, or something, to love. In arresting and unsettling prose, we watch Thandi's li...
2018-03-2444 min
PEN AmericaA Celebration of James Baldwin – A 20th Century Masters TributeA Celebration of James Baldwin – A 20th Century Masters Tribute: an event sponsored by the writers group PEN American Center, in collaboration with the New Yorker magazine and the Schomburg Center, and included presentations by novelists Chinua Achebe, Russell Banks and John Edgar Wideman, critic Hilton Als, poet Amiri Baraka, scholar Eleanor Traylor, and biographers Arnold Rampersad and David Leeming, as well as readings by poet and performer Carl Hancock Rux, photographs by Sedat Pakay, and an archival recording of James Baldwin singing “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.”
2017-05-091h 47
PEN AmericaPanel: Writing in a Racialized Society, 3/14/1992Paula Giddings, Toni Morrison, Arnold Rampersad, Hazel Carby, John Edgar Wideman, and Cornel West discuss the challenges, exaltations, perspectives and narratives of writing in a society where race has been ideologized, culturally polarized, historically examined, and the influences of technology. Moderated by Arnold Rampersad.
2016-12-212h 19
Get Top Full Trial Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, History & CultureWriting to Save a Life: The Louis Till File by John Edgar WidemanPlease visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/279570 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File Author: John Edgar Wideman Narrator: Roger Guenveur Smith Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 29 minutes Release date: November 15, 2016 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: A major literary figure tells “a searching tale of loss, recovery, and déja vu that is part memoir and what-if speculation, part polemic and exposé” (The Washington Post) about two generations of one family—civil rights martyr Emmett Till and his father, Louis—shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Emmett Till took a train from his h...
2016-11-1503 min
Access Essential Full Audiobooks in Mystery, Thriller & Horror, True CrimeWriting to Save a Life: The Louis Till File by John Edgar WidemanPlease visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/279570 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File Author: John Edgar Wideman Narrator: Roger Guenveur Smith Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 29 minutes Release date: November 15, 2016 Genres: True Crime Publisher's Summary: A major literary figure tells “a searching tale of loss, recovery, and déja vu that is part memoir and what-if speculation, part polemic and exposé” (The Washington Post) about two generations of one family—civil rights martyr Emmett Till and his father, Louis—shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Emmett Till took a train from his h...
2016-11-1503 min
The Archive ProjectTerry McMillan & John Edgar WidemanWideman and McMillan begin their lecture with a discussion of the projects they are working on and how they decide what material to write next. McMillan then reads an excerpt of her writing, speaking through the voice of one of her female characters. Wideman follows by reading a segment called “Picking Up My Father From the Springfield Station.” Each writer talks about his or her inspiration: in Wideman’s case, it’s his father’s life; in McMillan’s case, it’s her mother’s life. They discuss their portrayal of race, family, and identity in their work. The theme of empathy...
2015-11-1851 min
Kelly Writers House ProgramsJohn Edgar Wideman talks about his writing (2000)http://www.writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/fellows/wideman.html
2008-12-011h 29